Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more

Vietnam’s business AI adoption estimate rose from 18% in 2025 to 26% in 2026, but adoption does not yet mean organization-wide deployment: 61% of businesses already using AI said they were still experimenting. The figures come from a Strand Partners study commissioned by AWS, not a survey of the share of Vietnamese people using AI.

What does Vietnam’s 26% AI adoption figure measure?

The AWS-commissioned Unlocking Vietnam’s AI Potential 2026 study, conducted by Strand Partners, estimates that 26% of Vietnamese businesses—about 245,000—have adopted AI. The comparable estimate for 2025 was 18%. AWS says the study surveyed 1,000 business leaders and 1,000 members of the public across Vietnam. The 26% headline figure refers to businesses, not people.

A separate statistic can look similar but measures something different: Government News, citing Microsoft’s Global AI Diffusion Report, reported that 26.5% of Vietnam’s working-age population (ages 15–64) adopted AI in Q1 2026. That population measure is not directly comparable with the AWS study’s business estimate.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Why are most adopters still experimenting?

Starting to use AI is not the same as embedding it into a company’s operations. Among businesses that had adopted AI, 61% said they were still experimenting, while 23% reported having a formal, comprehensive AI strategy. Across all businesses polled, just 13% said they had a clearly defined framework for measuring AI return on investment (ROI) and applied it consistently; 46% said they lacked reliable ways to measure ROI.

Those results point to a gap between trying AI tools and managing them as part of repeatable business processes. They do not imply that every adopter is at the same stage: some may be testing use cases, while others may have systems in use but are still developing strategy or measurement.

What outcomes do businesses report?

Among adopters, 72% reported productivity gains, up from 66% in the previous year. Sixty-four percent said AI had increased revenue by an average of 15%, and 71% said their AI investment had broken even or delivered a positive return. These are self-reported survey responses, not evidence that AI alone caused the gains.

Expectations and priorities are distinct from realized results: 78% of adopters expected AI-driven growth in the following year, while 69% of businesses said AI adoption was a top or high priority.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

How do adoption and reported outcomes vary by sector?

The study reports different measures for sector adoption and outcomes among adopters. Financial-services businesses had a reported 41% AI adoption rate, compared with 26% overall; among financial-services adopters, 79% reported productivity gains. Healthcare adoption was 23%, and 69% of healthcare adopters reported productivity gains. The outcome percentages apply to adopters in each sector, not to every business in that sector.

What is stopping businesses from putting AI into production?

Skills, strategy and measurement appear central to the implementation challenge described in the study. Fifty-four percent of businesses recognized shortages of digital and AI skills as a barrier to adopting or expanding AI. While 87% of employers considered reskilling existing employees important to their AI strategy, 26% of employees had participated in some form of training over the past year, up from 19% in 2025.

For a business moving beyond pilots, the practical questions are whether it has clear ownership and governance, a way to measure ROI, employees prepared to use and review AI outputs, and workflows that can accommodate the technology. Integration, data handling, infrastructure and sector-specific compliance requirements also matter; the study does not compare vendors or establish which provider is best.

What does the study say about agentic AI?

AWS says 38% of businesses surveyed had heard of agentic AI. Among that group—not among all businesses—8% had embedded agents in core workflows and 19% were experimenting with or piloting them. The denominator matters: these figures describe businesses familiar with the term.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

How should the AWS examples be interpreted?

AWS’s summary profiles TCBS, saying more than 460 staff use its Kiro software-development environment, development time fell by nearly 25%, and 70% of AI-generated code passed first reviews. This is a company example reported in AWS’s sponsored article, not a controlled, sector-wide result.

The same article describes OmiGroup’s OmiKG research tool. AWS says that in a controlled research evaluation, OmiKG identified 15 of 17 molecular mechanisms for Type 2 Diabetes. That finding concerns the stated evaluation; it is not evidence of clinical effectiveness.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

What the adoption figures mean for businesses

The increase from 18% to 26% suggests broader business uptake, while the experimentation and ROI figures show that adoption remains an incomplete measure of implementation maturity. Businesses considering AI can use the distinction to ask not only whether teams have tried a tool, but whether they can govern it, measure its contribution, train people to use it responsibly and integrate it into appropriate workflows.

Eric Yeo, AWS Country General Manager for Vietnam, said: “Every organization is at a different point in its AI journey, but the direction is clear. Businesses that move thoughtfully from experimentation to implementation, supported with cloud infrastructure, regulatory clarity, and skills will be best positioned to compete and grow.” This is Yeo’s view as an AWS executive; AWS commissioned the study.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.